The Euroleague is a high-caliber professional basketball league with teams from all over Europe.
The Euroleague was established by ULEB, the Union of European Leagues of Basketball, which in turn was created by a group of 24 elite club teams. Most of the founding clubs came from Spain, Italy and Greece.
The Euroleague is currently contested in four phases.
The first phase is the regular season, in which 24 teams, divided into three groups of eight, participate. Each team plays two games (home-and-home) against every other team in its group. At the end of the regular season, the field is cut from 24 to 16; the surviving teams are divided into four groups.
The second phase, known as the Top 16, then begins. As in the regular season, each Top 16 group is contested in a double round-robin format.
New for the 2004-05 season is a quarterfinal round. Before, only the group winners advanced to the Final Four (see below). Now, the first- and second-place teams from each group advance. In the quarterfinal round, the first-place team from each group is matched against a second-place team from another group in a best-of-three series, with two of the three possible games scheduled at the first-place team's home court.
The Final Four, held at a predetermined site, features the winners of the four quarterfinal series in one-off knockout matches. The semifinal losers play for third place; the winners play for the championship.
The 2004 Final Four tournament took place in Tel Aviv, Israel from April 29 to May 1. The Final Four teams were:
- CSKA Moscow (Russia)
- Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel)
- Montepaschi Siena (Italy) (official club name: Mens Sana Basket)
- Skipper (Italy) (official club name: Fortitudo Bologna)
The Israeli Maccabi Tel-Aviv team took first place, winning 118:74 over Italian Skipper. Russia's CSKA took third place with a 97:94 win over Italy's Montepaschi.
The 2005 Final Four will be held in Moscow, Russia, with the semifinals to be held on May 6 and the third-place and championship games on May 8. The following teams will participate:
- CSKA Moscow
- Maccabi Tel Aviv
-
TAU Cerámica (Spain) (official club name: Saski Baskonia, or simply Baskonia)
-
Panathinaikos (Greece)
The semifinal matchups will be:
- CSKA v TAU Cerámica
- Maccabi v Panathinaikos
Teams of Euroleague 2004/2005
Croatia
France
- Adecco Asvel Lyon
- Pau-Orthez
Germany
- Opel Skyliners (Frankfurt)
Greece
Israel
Italy
Lithuania
Poland
Russia
Serbia and Montenegro
- Partizan Mobtel (Belgrade)
Slovenia
- Union Olimpija (Ljubljana)
Spain
Turkey
Champions 1958-2004
*2001 was a transition year, with the best European teams split into two major leagues (Suproleague held by FIBA, Euroleague by ULEB). Suproleague 2001 was won by Maccabi Tel-Aviv (Israel).
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